Just Because He Can't
by TUMe
Summary: Naruto weird behaviours were almost like he was in love; Sasuke’s chaos mind came out with the conclusion. He needed to do something, Naruto was his.Whether he loved somebody else or not, he would try to make him his.So he bought a pair of rings. SasuNaru


Title: Just Because I Can't

**Disclaimer : Naruto is not mine.**

**Hi, this is a companion fic to ****Definitely, Maybe****. However you have to read that one first to fully understand this fic. Seriously, you wont get most of the connections without reading that first. Ok?**

**Title:**** Just Because I Can't**

Marriage is not such a strange concept to Sasuke. For him, marriage is something practical and a right thing to do to carry on one's family name.

This is maybe because, born in such a sought-after and prestigious family clan like the Uchiha, his mind was imprinted with the importance of marriage since he was a child – due to some obvious reasons too.

First, for his clan and everybody else that wanted to join in the clan, Uchiha name is precious – marriage makes the name even more solid.

Secondly, he was simply taught that marriage is a proper thing to do to show one commitment and determination. Just like his mother always said, "Marriage makes family – it's a gift like no other."

After all, when his clan was still around he was always surrounded by married people.

His parents were married too– duh!

The old couple down the street that always greeted him every morning were married.

His next door neighbours, his neighbours across the street, his father's brothers and sisters, his mother's brothers and sisters, his father's cousins, his mother's cousin, his grandparents, his grandparents' brothers and sisters and so on – there were all married.

In short, yeah, marriage is not a strange concept to Sasuke – even his life goals somehow had something to do with marriage, remember? For God sake, he wanted to restore his clan and how he was supposed to do that if he was not to be married?

Sure he can just impregnates any random passer-by girl but that's not how an Uchiha does things. And Sasuke is an Uchiha through and through – the only one that left in fact.

However, his first goal in life kinda messed up his mind for quite a long time that he rarely took notice of his second goal.

Only lately, after he had killed his bastard of a brother – meaning his first goal had completed – and returned to Konoha, did he really ponder on that subject.

Ahhhh…talking about his return to Konoha, Sasuke never thought it will end up this way at all.

At first, he was a bit surprised to know that the council and the villagers were too forgiving towards him. Really, he expected to be killed or exiled or at least, life imprisonment. He never expected he would be sentenced to a house arrest. Only.

He felt so lucky at the moment.

But he felt lucky only at _that _moment because as soon as he heard his guard's name, he knew that the house arrest would be worse than life imprisonment – he rather live alone in prison than living with the person who was assigned to watch over him.

Sasuke pretty sure this was Tsunade's twisted idea to torture him for all the problem that he made the old hag went through.

Because lo and behold, Naruto – the one and only – was assigned to watch him and he had no say in that matter. A refusal from him meant he had to be exiled; exaltation after returning sounded stupid and Sasuke definitely not stupid.

If Sasuke was being truthful to himself, he was not really against the idea of Naruto being his baby-sitter. He just, you know, a bit er..confused on how to face Naruto again after all these years.

He was actually a tid-bit happy that Naruto was willing to take the position.

Hmm…that was not entirely true; he was incredibly happy. Because that probably meant Naruto was not really angry at him.

Right?

Well, he didn't know; thinking about it for 40 days and nights didn't give him any answer either. No matter how many people claimed that he was a genius, he could never guess what his ex-best friend would think of him right now.

That was why he was a bit wary to face Naruto; he didn't want to make things worse - whatever the 'things' was.

Because if possible he wanted to be the blonde best friend back – not ex-best friend. Yet, guilty feeling prohibited him to even think anything like that could happen. He was not worthy of Naruto's friendship.

So, Sasuke being Sasuke, as not to show his true feeling, he kept up his cold demeanour towards Naruto – only a bit nicer compared to his genin days.

On that note, he started to live with the most unexpected ninja of Konoha village, the Hokage-wannabe and his ex-best friend.

Living with Naruto was full of surprises; Sasuke didn't know any other way to describe it – and that was only in the beginning.

The first few months of them living together, he could say that they successfully re-enacted a play from hell. Sasuke was so vicious and hostile towards Naruto that Sasuke was sure Naruto would kill him in his sleep someday just for revenge.

But, one had to understand, Sasuke never intended to behave like that towards Naruto.

Yeah, really, he was not lying.

He had been alone for so long, another person presence simply annoyed him especially the said person was the most annoying person Konoha had ever did see.

First and foremost, Naruto was too loud: he always woke up with the annoying alarm clock that could raise the dead, he sang off-tune songs during shower, he screamed at Sasuke when Sasuke forgot to collect the dry clothes from the lines and he always tried to make conversation with Sasuke - even the stupid ones.

Although Sasuke felt that he did talk more after his return to Konoha, he still didn't know how to carry proper conversation with people; that was what made conversation with Naruto annoying – he didn't know what to reply except for 'Hn' and if he got inspiration, he threw in a few chosen insults.

So, most of the time, he just kept quite. Or concentrate on his cooking.

Yes, cooking – who said Sasuke couldn't cook? He cooks quite well, thankyouverymuch.

They usually had conversation while waiting for dinner and at most time, Sasuke was the one who made it. If he let Naruto to do it, they would either be eating ramen or burned food or eating out – none of those were his favourite.

Secondly, Naruto made him uncomfortable. When he realized he began to crave Naruto stupid conversations and felt his heart skipped a beat when he saw Naruto's happy smile eating his dinner, Sasuke knew there was something wrong. And this time, he had a suspicion what that 'thing' was.

Because if Sasuke was an honest man, he would confide that he might be-probably-kinda had a crush on his ex-best friend when they were younger.

Well, what he was trying to say was he didn't know for sure but one thing that he sure was he _definitely, maybe_ had a crush on Naruto.

Alas, Sasuke was not a very honest man, so he didn't confide to anybody and let the feeling died over time; he even convinced himself that that was only a fragment of his imagination. By luck, he succeeded and totally forgot about it when he was away from Konoha. Just like the wise said, out sight out of mind.

Thus, those explained his vicious and hostile behaviours towards Naruto. He wanted to drive Naruto out of his house – let that idiot out of his life too.

The equation was easy, really. No Naruto means no fuzzy feeling means no uncomfortable feeling means proves he was a normal man means he would someday find a girl and live a family life, happily ever after.

The end.

It was that simple, or so Sasuke thought.

Even with his strong resolve to drive Naruto out of his house, every tongue lashings, every cutting insult and every bitter word he threw at Naruto cut him deeper than he ever knew possible.

All that because those stupid sad eyes that Naruto gave him every time that happened. Those eyes clenched his heart every single time. Every. Damn. Time.

He didn't know how Naruto did it but all he knew was he wanted Naruto to stop giving him those sad eyes.

But still, he wouldn't admit what was happening to him, refused to accept the regrowing feeling.

And he didn't plan to, ever.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Not everything worked according to plan especially to Sasuke.

Because one day, when they – Sasuke and Naruto – had just finished sparring near the Uchiha mansion training ground, truth to his nickname, Naruto unexpectedly asked a question that shook Sasuke's foundation of his own true feeling.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke wanted to lash a bitter 'what' but didn't have the energy to do so, he just kept quite; he rather like their position - laying beside each other on the grass – contented just to feel the warm wind blew.

Expecting the silent, Naruto continued,

"Sasuke, what is love?"

The world was still for about 10 seconds for Sasuke.

'_Where did the question come from? _'was Sasuke first thought when the world finally moved again.

_Did he suspect anything?_

Even Sasuke himself felt ridiculous thinking that – of course that idiot wouldn't suspect anything; he was denser than mercury!

_So, what__'s love?_

He began to ponder himself when Naruto made no sign to continue.

And his mind brought him back when he still had his family, when there was still love surrounding him; his mother warm smiles, his father strong hands and his brother hugs.

Surprisingly, remembering those things didn't bring the sadness feeling he felt every time he thought about the past.

Because even though he had lost his mother warm smiles, his father strong hands and Itachi's playful hug, he had something else now that made him feel loved: Naruto's smile, Naruto's stupid chatter, Naruto's loyalty, Naruto's friendship, Naruto's attention and most of all, Naruto himself.

Yeah, he could answer that. He knew that feeling before, he knew that feeling now.

So, he answered truthfully,

"Love is warm and safe."

_And you._

He wanted to continue but never had the gut to say that at the moment – he just discovered his feeling, he needed time to let it all sink in.

The very next day, he asked Naruto to move in completely. When he was asked why he simply said,

"There are too many rooms and your apartment is not liveable for human, anyway."

When in truth, he simply wanted to be near that idiot, always. He decided to accept and admit the re-growing feeling.

The first step would be to try to be nicer to his 'beloved'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They never talked about that again. Sasuke was so grateful for that because he was a bit lost on what to do next - accepting and admitting his feeling didn't make this whole ordeal easier.

On the contrary, by accepting and admitting his feeling came a sense of realisation.

A sense of reality.

Contrary to popular belief, Sasuke had a sense of reality and common sense. He knew that falling in love with one's ex-bestfriend aka your housemate aka your freeloader was a big no-no, especially when one had a dream to rebuild one's clan.

However, Sasuke was far from eager to run away from this guilty feeling because fck guilty feeling, he couldn't help himself – he was already in love and he blamed it all on Naruto.

Naruto was so--so Naruto that Sasuke felt helplessly attracted to him: he invaded Sasuke's mind that Sasuke couldn't get him out of his mind, he always by Sasuke's side that Sasuke felt lost without him, he rudely read Sasuke like a book that Naruto understood him perfectly and many more unmentionable things that Naruto had done to Sasuke.

But Sasuke was everything if not careful. He planned to confess his feeling to Naruto one day, taking his actions slowly. He didn't want to freak Naruto out by his sudden confession. After all, where could that usurontakachi go? He lived with that idiot, he could take his time.

For now, he settled for being nice to that idiot: making breakfast for him, readying a bath tub for him and tending to his injuries when he came back from hard mission. That way he could be closer to Naruto and touched him without Naruto suspecting anything.

He knew what Naruto likes and dislikes by heart now; living almost 2 years with him taught him that, so it was easy to make his move.

He knew Naruto liked his cooking because he would close his eyes in bliss when he tasted the food even though Naruto never admitted it. He knew Naruto really liked animal that he couldn't even kill ants that bit his feet but he was afraid of cockroaches. He knew Naruto hated milk but drank it religiously to grow taller.

It was really cute to discover these things about Naruto but Sasuke sure Naruto also discovered these similar things about him too. Sasuke could tell because all the little things that Naruto done to him without telling: Naruto always picked the dry clothes from the line because Sasuke always, always forgot them, whenever they had dinner, Naruto always prepared drinks because Sasuke was terrible at it and he always found himself covered with blanket when he slept without one.

This sweet co-dependence life made Sasuke wondered what would happened if Naruto was to leave him.

_I will be an empty shell._

His heart answered for him.

But never in his intention to prevent Naruto from finding his love just because Sasuke had wanted to be one nor would he helped him find one neither.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lately however, to Sasuke discomfort, Naruto had been acting strange. It started with that one night.

That night, after a healthy dinner yet again made by Sasuke, Naruto once again asked him unexpected questions.

"So Sasuke, have you ever loved somebody before?" He started.

"Before?" Sasuke answered, trying to cover his shock. He looked at Naruto coolly to read Naruto real intention from asking him such question; Naruto was so random sometimes Sasuke had yet to be accustomed to that habit.

"Yeah, like when you were younger or something."

Naruto seemed to gain a little confident when Sasuke did response to his sudden question.

"Hmm. Definitely, maybe."

Silence and then,

"You know, if you didn't want to answer just say so. Don't give me a crap ass answer like that." Naruto fumed.

"That's not a crap ass answer usuratonkachi. You said 'before', then the answer is 'definitely, maybe'." Sasuke defended himself by explaining.

"What, are you trying to fool me or something? Alright I ask again. Do you have somebody that you love now?" Naruto stressed every word.

"Definitely yes."

"What?! Geez, fine. Don't answer me. I don't really get you sometimes."

"I don't expect you to do so, dobe." Sasuke smirked.

Actually, he really hoped Naruto would get what he was trying to say because that was as close as a confession he could give now.

If only Naruto wasn't so dense.

"Fine, you can do the dishes. I want to meet Iruka-sensei." It was Naruto way of punishing Sasuke for his statement just now.

"Hey, it's your job to do the dishes."

"But you don't expect me to do so, right Sasuke?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After that night, Sasuke could tell that Naruto was acting weird: he became secretive, edgy, suspicious looking, spacing out almost all the time, lost in thought and sighing a lot; like he was hiding something.

For Sasuke, looking at Naruto acting like that made him felt insecure – Naruto weird behaviours were almost like he was……in love; Sasuke's chaos mind came out with the conclusion.

He needed to do something, Naruto was his, dammit!. Whether he loved somebody else or not, he would try to make him his.

So he bought a pair of rings.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After awhile Naruto weird behaviours receded and they still lived under the same roof and Sasuke still had the rings. There was no reason to give the rings to Naruto now that he had went back to normal – they could live like this forever without changing anything.

No, that wouldn't do because Sasuke wanted something to change – he already bought the freaking rings!

It took Sasuke a couple of more months to prepare himself to pop the ultimate question. He had to practice what he wanted to say, pulled a lot of courage to say it and learned how to say it right. He even came out with several contingency plans if Naruto decided to accept or reject him – either way he needed escape plans.

Apart from that, he needed to observe Naruto too. Because as confident as people said he was, Sasuke - or anybody else for that matter - couldn't be too confident in the matter of love. In those couple of months, he had been searching any signs from Naruto that might show he also experiencing the same feeling as Sasuke.

The result? Sasuke could say he had a chance.

So, on that fateful Tuesday, he asked Naruto to marry him.

No bend on your knees crap. No roses. No whatever.

He posed the question as if he was asking what they would have for dinner (Chicken or fish?).

He had to do it like that or else he would lose his composure – hey, he got a lot to loose here.

For a moment there, he thought Naruto would punched him in the face but instead, that usuratonkachi asked in his dumbfounded state,

"But, we don't even date or anything."

"Naruto, we have been living together for years. Do you seriously think we need to date anymore?" Sasuke deadpanned.

The stunned blond just look at Sasuke like he had gone crazy. Then mumbling an 'I need to help Lee trim his brow', Naruto flew from the scene.

Sasuke gave out a relief sigh. This was better than he thought – Naruto didn't flat reject him.

He had a chance. He only had to wait for Naruto to come to his senses and realized that Naruto was in love with Sasuke too.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Wednesday, they never brought up the proposal again. Nevertheless, Sasuke could feel that Naruto was uncomfortable with Sasuke presence. And Sasuke feeling was confirmed true when Naruto started to avoid him by Thursday: he never home at dinner, purposely missed breakfast and just generally being so silent.

Sasuke was expecting that kind of reactions from Naruto – it was all in his contingency plans anyway - but by Friday, he was getting nervous. He was losing confidence of his theory that Naruto in fact was in love with him too.

Came Monday, he just had a nervous breakdown. If calling himself a liar was what it took to get Naruto back, he would call himself a liar. He would tell Naruto that what he said was just a joke and he was just playing around with him. So on Tuesday, when he was busy calming himself down - before he went to confront Naruto - by reading some scroll and sipping tea, he was surprised when said person suddenly barged into the living room, looking very nervous.

Naruto walked cautiously towards Sasuke. Sasuke never imagined a time harder than that moment to breathe; Naruto fidgeting didn't help his case either and if he had to wait any longer he probably hyperventilating.

"Yes."

The word was said in a soft voice but Sasuke heard it nonetheless. Still, it could be just his imagination – in his current nervous state, he might had start hallucinating.

So, still keeping up a nonchalant attitude despite his nervousness – nobody should know he was on the verge of hyperventilating -, he asked to confirm,

"What did you say usuratonkachi?"

No answer came from Naruto – he was too busy fidgeting and avoiding Sasuke's face.

Sasuke became impatient – he needed to know the answer, his heart felt like it would explode because of anxiety.

"Hey, are you going mute or has cat got your tounge?"

All of sudden, Naruto stopped fidgeting and looked at him angrily.

"I said yes, you bastard! I'll marry your bastard self! Happy?!" he shouted at Sasuke, face so red it was very cute.

_Happy? He asked if I'm happy? He is really an idiot, idiot._

Unable to control his happiness, he hugged the smaller boy tightly – Naruto fit just right in Sasuke's arm. He wanted to shout back 'I'm happy. Happy, happy, happy. Happy as I can be' and ran around the village telling everybody that he had finally won a very precious treasure but naaahhh….not now.

Maybe next time.

Now, Sasuke just settled with telling Naruto 'Yes,happy' softly to his ear and a 'Very happy' to his face before kissing that dense-idiot deeply.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Decided that they didn't want to wait any longer – more like Sasuke who decided that – the very next day, on Wednesday, they went to change their family register; Naruto taking his family name. It was worth it to see Naruto blushed from head to toe when Sasuke slid the ring on his ring finger; he couldn't stop smiling stupidly himself – he was so damn happy. He finally got Naruto as his 'wife'.

That night, they had a small company for reception – all the people that came were close friends and Iruka-sensei offered to be the host although the reception was held in Uchiha mansion. It was a nice reception; people congrulating them and Sasuke simply couldn't stop grinning – he was just so happy.

Why wouldn't he be happy? He got the most precious treasure after all. Duh!

After the guests and Iruka-sensei went home, they started cleaning up the mess. When they were washing the dishes, another unexpected question from Naruto came up.

"Er..Sasuke. So, who is your 'definitely, maybe'?"

Sasuke smirked.

_Ooo, so that's what he has been thinking all day. No wonder he looks kinda distracted__._

"So, you finally understand what I was trying to say, huh. Took you long enough, Naruto-chan."

_Aahh, he blushed again. Looks__ delicious, I'm gonna have him for dessert._

"Shut up. Just answer me, bastard."

"Uzumaki Naruto."

_Uh-huh. If he doesn't stop blushing, I really gonna have him for dessert, literally._

"What? What do you mean me? How about your 'definitely, yes'?"

_Hmm. That confuse look is delicious too. I definitely have him for dessert and breakfast._

"My definitely yes is Uchiha-Uzumaki Naruto."

He looked speecless: his eyes were big with wonder and the cheeks were red from blushing. Naruto was too delicious, Sasuke self restrain snapped and he proceeded to devour his 'dessert'.

And possibly his 'breakfast' too.

Tonight, he gonna shows his 'wife' how much he loved him. Maybe tomorrow he would worry about his clan again but that didn't affect anything – he would still choose Naruto even if he were given other choices just because... he couldn't.

He couldn't live without his idiot.


End file.
